A Journey Underground.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 275, 8 May 1873, Page 7

A Journey Underground.

"What is your profession, may I ask?" The interrogatory was addressed to a talkative little fellow, of dapper build and somewhat seedy habiliments, who chanced to sit beside me in the smokingcar of an American railway-train at the time when slavery was an American " institution." "We had been some time in conversation, and I had secured his confidence by proving myself a patient listener. I saw he was a queer genius, and hence my somewhat intrusive question. " "Well, replied he, without being the least offended, "in my time I've been a'most everything, I reck'n — that is, in the professional way; I'm now in the reg'lar theatrical." Here he drew himself up proudly, and put a fresh button in the black frock-coat that covered his slight and somewhat dingy disk of linen. " Yes, sir, in the theatrical, and I'm on my way to fulfil a starring engagement in on© of the Western theatres — first low-comedy is my partickler line.' I could have guessed this to be his role, and nodded as much. " Before taking to the stage," he continued, " I tried doctorin' ; I found that wouldn't do, and took to plain pullin' of teeth — failed in this, and then had a shy at photography. Worse still ; and, getting tired of the camera, T strayed into niger-singin'." " Nigger-singin' ! That paid better, I presume ?" "No, sir; worse — still worse — at least it was so in my case." " Perhaps your talent dosen't lie that way?" " Dosen't it ! There, stranger, is just where you're mistaken. I've got both banjo and bones at the ends of my fingers ; and if you could jest hear me sing a nigger mel'dy, I reck'n you'd say you never heard one sung before. As to the ' making-up,' 1 can dress or paint nigger with any man in the line. Ha, ha, ha! That puts me in mind of a circumstance that'll sort o' explain why I quit the derky business: It's a little bit funny ; maybe you'd like to hear about it ?" " A bout anything in the world." " Well, you see, stranger, I was nigger-singin' in the wrong place. I'd strayed down to Tuscumbia, in the State of Alabama. There was myself and Joe Cullum, that did the bones and breakdowns, and two other fellows, that warn't much account one way or the other. We tried concerts, but they wouldn't pay. Truth is there was a set of minstrels there, who were real Sambos themselves — and people said they preferred the genome article. They even insulted us by sayin' the niggers could beat us. All bosh ! I could have given any of them darkies ten, and licked them into shucks at representin' himself. "It was no use. The Tuscumbians wouldn't see it, so we rattled the bones and twanged tbe banjo to empty benches. " We bad reached Tuscumbia with just four dollars among the four of us, after stayin' there four weeks, we were in for a tevern bill of about twenty dollars a-piece ! . " How to get out of the place had come to be a question, and a serious one at that. Of course we hadn't a friend — what nigger-singer ever has when he's in a tight place ? " I for one wanted bad to get away — for Christmas-week was comin' on, and I'd determined to be at Pittsburgh for my Christmas dinner. I'm a native of the Iron City , and besides, I had been promised an engagement at the Pittsburgh theatre. "It was before the day of rail, and ' staging ' through from Tuscumbia, to say nothin' of the bill owin' at the hotel, was simply out of the question. So, stranger, I think you'll acknowledge I was in a fix ?" " Indeed a very awkward one. And how did you get out of it ?" "That's jest what I'm goin' to tell you — I guess you'll grin when you hear it. I've made a good many most split their sides laughin' at that same," " No doubt I'll do the same." " Well, I'm tol'rably clever at gettin' out of fixes, anyhow, and it wasn't the first by a long chalk I'd come clear off. As you say, this Tuscumbia scrape was an awk'ard one ; but I was bound not to let it beat me, and determined upon eatin' 'my Christmas dinner with my Pittsburgh friends — so I took to hard thinkin' how I. shed get away from Alabama — the meanest State lever set foot in. "Well, mister, an idea turned up that promised me a free passage. 'Twas this: While nigger-singin' through the South, I'd got to know somethin' of nigger ways, and, now I and then, had come across some of the wiser kind of darkies, and got into their confidence. They looked upon me as a man and a brother." " Here the ex-melodist interpolated his narrative by a chuckle at his own jeu d 'esprit. " Well," he continued, " from them I'd learnt a deal about the underground railway; I suppose you understand what that is ?" "Not very clearly, though I've heard something concerning it." " I'll tell you, then, all about it. The underground railway was run by a set of men who were friendly to the nigger ; most of them were Quakers and Abolitioners, wto were settled in the South, and some were wealthy planters, too. They formed a sort 'o 'federation for the purpose of en-

couraging any nigger that wanted to run away, and when he had run away, they helped him along till he got clear out of the Slave States, when, of course, he was free. They managed the tiling by keepin' him hid all day, and at night stowin' him away in a waggon, or some other sort of trap, among their goods, and so passin' him along from one to the other, till he was safe across the Ohio river, and therefore on free soil. But at the time I'm speakin' of, the underground railway had to extend a leelle further than the banks of the Ohio. You've heard of the Fugitive Slave Law — which I reckon, stranger, want a very creditable bit 'o legislation on the part of Uncle Sam," I began to like the " nigger-singer," but said nothing. "Well," continued he, without heeding my reticence, " whatever may be your opinion of it, Tve got good reason for goin' against it. It cost me a journey I don't ever want to make again ; and by it I was not only choused out of my Christmas dinner in Pittsburgh, but my engagement at the Pittsburgh theatre as well." "How was that?" " You see there are several lines of the underground railway, all runuing through different sections of the Slave States, and endin' at the Ohio Kiver. But after the Fugitive Slave Bill had been passed, the runaways want safe, unless carried on into Canada, where they'd be sure of British protection." ,' Quite true," I said, my respect for the low-comedian growing stronger as he proceeded ; " please continue your story." " Well, stranger, I'd learnt through an old darky at Tuscumbia, of un underground line running from that place and ako who was the nearest depot- manager on the route — a kindly old Quaker, who had a plantation about ten miles north-west from the town. " I made up my mind to play runaway nigger, and go North under ground. " I couldn't tell where they would carry me, but supposed I should come out all right somewhere on the Ohio river, and could there get a boat to Pittsburgh. " I took Joe Cullum into my confidence, and proposed to him to run away along with me, for I'd heard it was not uncommon for two darkies to go togethex 1 . "But Joe wasn't up to the idea. Although he wanted badly to get North — most as much as myself, he got scared about riskin' it: and staid in Tuscumbia. As for the other two fellows, they were both good-for-nothing cusses, and I didn't say a word to them about what I intended doin'. I was afeered they might fetch me into a worse scrape than that I was try in' to get clear of. and I preferred travelling alone. " And the way I made preparations {•or my journey ! that, stranger, would have tickled you ! Talk of makin'-up for a concert — that want nothing to it ! I cut my hair close, as if it had been shaved — I was afeered the ends of it hangin' down under the wool- wig might betray me. I corked myself with care, going far below the nape of the neck, and then, with a bit of hog's lard, gave the skin a polish that would have outshined that of any darky in Tuscumbia. " A small bundle was sufficient for all my effects — and, to tell the truth, it contained most ot 'em. Whatever was left behind might go against my bill — though I guess the Tuscumbian tavern-keeper want too well satisfied with the reckonin'. " On i&tealin' away from the hotel in the dark of the evenin', with my bundle of sticks on a staff over my shoulder, I reckon I must have looked like one of them pictures you used to see in the New Orleans newspapers, headed, ' Runaway Negro.' " I put straight for the plantation, which I'd been told to be the depot of the Underground. " There was no mistake about the information. The old Quaker was at home, and at once took me in charge. He 'thee'd' and 'thou'd' a little, but asked no troublesome questions. He had no suspicion of my being a white man, for there wasn't much light for him to examine me. If there had, it would have been all the same, for my make-up would have stood sharper scrutiny than his. As for the answers given him, as I've told you, I could talk nigger with any darky in Alabama. "He did not lose any time in parleying, but, hurrying me into an outhouse, brought me in a darned good supper — better than any I had eaten in the Tuscumbia tavern; and then, bundlin' me into the bottom of a Dearborn wagon, and tbrowin' some traps over to conceal me, he handed the reins to his son, who at once whipped away from the plantation. I was told to keep quiet, and not under any circumstances rise from my squatted position. " I did as directed, and soon after fell asleep. " When I woke it was just breaking day, but I had no time to look at the sky, or even the things that were about me. The Dearborn had stopped at what appeared to me a small farmhouse ; and a blanket-coat, telling me to jump out, led me to a barn. I was told to step into it, and keep quiet till called.

" I did so ; and shortly after breakfast was brought me by the man in the

blanket-coat, who again repeated the order to keep quiet, but went away without saying another word. "I got my dinner, and after it another caution to 'keep dark.' " I could not have done otherwise, for the barn was a stone building, and when the door was shut there wasn't a ray of light around me. "My supper was brought in just after sunset, and then the- man in the blanket-coat bundled me into a wagon, and almost smothering me under a load of corn fodder which he was taking to some market, carried me away from his house. " Stranger, it would tire you to tell how often I was hidden in barns and other out-houses, and how many lifts I had in Dearborns and big wagons, driven by different drivers — all of them as untalkative as if I had been only a bale of some sort of goods they were smugglin' to the North. "Sometimes I was kept concealed for three days at a time before I could be safely forwarded to the next station of the ' Underground.' "I needn't tell you that the thing became terribly tiresome ; and I began to think I'd better have walked all the way from Tuscumbia to Pittsburgh. " Once or twice I did think of giving the slip to my kind conductors ; but again I changed my mind, and again resolved to continue on to Ohio, which I knew couldn't be far ahead. On getting there, I took it for granted I could easily throw off my disguise. "I at last reached it ; but, instead of being carried across in a public ferryboat, as I supposed would have been the case, I was pulled out of the wag»on, burned into a skiff, and rowed across undei cover of the night. " Now, thought I, lam free. I've only to steer off from my Abolitionist friends, and make my way up the river to Pittsburgh. " But 1 soon found I had made a mistake in my reckonin'. When I proposed, in true darkey tongue, to give my conductors no further trouble, they at once said *No ! There was no safety for me this side of the lakes — I must be taken on into Canada. " I protested, and asked why. I was told that they dare not let me stop in the State of Ohio ; I should be certain of being pursued, and taken back to Alabama. There were spies and informers all through the State of Ohio, in the pay of the Southern planters ; and not only would I be discovered, but they who had so kindly assisted me to escape would get into trouble by it. It might break up the 'Underground line !" " The men who talked this way, and w\ o were now in charge of me, were a very different-lookin' set from those who had hitherto been passing me from hand to hand. They were rough, stalwart fellows, dressed in home-spun jean suits, with horse-pistols stuck in their belts. They talked and acted as if it would be a leetle dangerous to deny them. "It was only afterwards that I learned why they were so anxious for my safe carriage to Canada. It was not from any philanthropy on their part, but because of the reward which philanthropists sometimes give — to such as may do 'em a service. " These men were employed by the Northern Abolitioners, and paid per head for every run-a-way slave they could get celar into Canada. " Though it was in the darkness of the night, I could tell — while palaverin' with them — that they wern't going to be trifled with, and that to declare my real character would ensure me rough treatment — perhaps lynching on tbe spot. Willin' or not, I saw I should be compelled to continue the underground journey ; and continue it I did. " I was in hopes of bein' able to give them the slip before travelling far through the free State of Ohio ; and especially as they shoved me into the railway train just starting for Sandusky. " But one of them got in along with me, keepin' as close as if he'd been a sheriff's officer taking me to the country jail. " I could do nothin' until we had reached Sandusky. Once there, however, my dander got up ; for I'd come to be angry at bein' kept so long a prisoner. So at length I threw off the mask, and proclaimed the true color of my skin. It was in the tavern where we were stoppin' to wait for a Detroit boat. "Never was man more astonished than my travellin' companion and care-taker when he saw the wool wig lifted off my head, and the cork streamin' down my cheeks under a strong application o' soap and water. " And not more astonished than angry — since the deception had caused him a journey, as expensive as it was without profit to him. My transformation had deprived him of his bounty. " He'd have given me a good thrashin' if it hadn't been for some of the Sanduskians iuterferin' to hinder him ; and, after cursin' me considerably, he went his way. "He wasn't long gone, when I began to think I'd been a fool for not keepin' up the sham and lettin' him take me on to Canada. Had I done so I should have received sufficient money from him to carry me back to Pittsburg — for the Underground Co. used always to give something to a runaway nigger to start him in his new life. "As it was, I was still as far from

home as in Tuscumbia, and worse off j for 1 was set down in the cold streets of Sandusky in the middle o' "Winter, with only a thin jean coat on my back, a pair of white pantaloons on my legs, and not a cent in the pockets of either ! ''Fortunately, there were some fellows got round me, who were so tickled at the trick I'd play'd the ab- . olitioner, that they raised a subscription to send me across to Pittsburgh. " I got there at last, but too late for my Christmas dinner, as well as for the engagement at the theatre, which of course I had forfeited." My fellow-traveller predicted truly. His tale caused me to laugh, almost to the splitting of my sides. " Stay ;" he exclaimed, after lighting a cigar I had offered him. " You've not heard the whole of it. There's another chapter to come." " Indeed ; I' m glad of that. What is the other chapter ?" " It's only a sequel, as we say in the* playbills ; and isn't exactly about myself." ""Who, then?" " Joe Cullum. Joe, as I've told you was as tired of Tuscumbia as I was. After I'd gone, and thinkin' I'd made a good thing of it, he determined to try the same. So followin' my example, he painted nigger, and put himself under the care of the Underground conductors. " But the story of "tbe deception I'd played 'em had come back — by grapevine telegraph, I reckon, along the lino — makiu' them more partickler as to the sort of passengers they carried. So when Joe had got about half-way to the Ohio, they sponged the cork from off o' his phiz, and then further purified him by a duckin' in a Kentucky horse pond, that well-nigh ended in his bein' drowned. Ha ! ha ! ha !" The railway trip I was taking was full fifty miles in length. In listening to my fellow-smoker's story of hia " Journey Underground " it appeared not more than five.